Quite difficult matters can be explained even to a slow-witted man, if only he has not already adopted a wrong opinion about them; but the simplest things cannot be made clear even to a very intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he already knows, and knows indubitably, the truth of the matter under consideration. -Leo Tolstoy

Well that sucks, As far as I know there is no issue raising bees here, we export them after all. Surely there is enough genetic diversity here for us not to need this? The only reason I can think to do this is to introduce Varoa resistant genetics but it seems a bit counter productive if you introduce Varoa a long with it!This could be a good time to get to know your local member.Or perhaps the federal minister for agriculture, Barnaby Joyce

queens brought into this country go into quarantine sealed from the outside world . from there eggs are grafted and checked for any disease or pathogens . the original queens are destroyed and never see outside the laboratory . the new queens get ai and then destroyed . eggs are grafted of the ai before she is killed and only then are released to queen breeders n. it is a very expensive exercise . australia has a great need for new stock as most lines are becoming crossed as there is not a great gene pool in this country .

Quite difficult matters can be explained even to a slow-witted man, if only he has not already adopted a wrong opinion about them; but the simplest things cannot be made clear even to a very intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he already knows, and knows indubitably, the truth of the matter under consideration. -Leo Tolstoy

Our DPI man only found out about this yesterday also and suggested contacting the state beekeepers association. Here's the reply I received: "The idea of importing Canadian Queens is to help the Australian Beekeeper find a more respondent strain to deal with Varroa. There are certain import protocols in place to assure any risk will be addressed. Some of the protocols are that the Queen does not leave the Quarantine facility, only the grafted cells. The federal government has given the go ahead to this and further info can be sourced through AHBIC our peak body."

My question to people who see varroa everyday are: Is varroa ever seen off a bee with the potential to jump on the next bee? How is varroa transferred between bees?

I'd also like to know if the bees from the nucs the canadian queens are added to are contained within walls. I don't know why we can't import all the varroa resistant queens we need once varroa is already within our boarders. It seems too risky to me.

Lone, the importation of queens is carefully managed. If or when we get varroa it will be from a container ship or a sailing boat with a swarm carrying varroa mite. Queensland already has asian bees that are a vector for varroa. The importation of queens is zero risk and is actually introducing genetics for varroa resistance. Relax. Sugar shake your bees and be vigilant. Yanta.

Yanta,I'm hoping importing bees won't become too popular. I do think the risk is less if they stay in Canada. The Asian bees in Australia don't carry varroa so they are no more likely to be a vector than our more common european bees. Sugar shaking will only tell us the bad news, but I did learn how to do it a couple of weeks ago. Once we know we have varroa, it will be too late.Ozbee, why can't they send over frozen drone semen if we need different genetics here? After all, we have a world record holding texan longhorn near here bred through AI!

Having varroa here will be a blow for sure, but most especially in the chemicals that will be introduced in the honey and wax. For now, I doubt my hives at home have access to chemicals. In town you wouldn't know, but very little I guess compared with saving hives with the first onslaught of varroa. I don't think us little hobbyists could afford any of these new lines of queens until maybe after a few decades the genes appear in feral bush hives. I'm just speculating, but time will tell.

Asian honey bees are a natural host for varroa mites, if these mites were introduced into Australia from a new incursion of honey bees, the already established Asian honey bees would aid the spread of the mite, which would severely impact Australia's honey bee industry.DPI

australia is heavily monitored as well as a trapping and baiting system in place over the islands as well as the top end . varorra is only on one island just of the coast of PNG . making foolhardy guess puts australian exports at risk so check whats in place before making the leap.